Improved bearing grease packer

ABSTRACT

A bench top bearing packer tool includes supply means for delivering a controlled amount of grease, support means for locating a bearing in a position where a bearing cage and rollers of the bearing may be lubricated with the grease delivered by the supply means, the supply means having a grease delivery outlet communicating with a grease delivery inlet of the support means by a grease flow passageway, and means for controlling the passage of grease through the inlet to the bearing cage and rollers of the bearing.

The present invention relates to a bearing lubrication tool and, inparticular, to a tool for allowing bearing grease to be repacked intothe bearing cage and against the rollers of bearings used in wheel hubs.

Bearings, as used in the wheel hubs of motor vehicles, trailers,caravans, aircraft, agricultural equipment and the like, requirelubrication from time to time. This is initially provided at the time ofassembly of the bearing, but maintenance of wheel hub bearings is an ongoing requirement. On some four wheel drive vehicles, hub maintenanceand repacking the bearings with grease is required at 30,000 kmtraveled. Aircraft bearings are serviced at 100 hrs flight time. Thesetwo examples alone show the many thousands of hours spent per dayglobally in the servicing of bearings of industrial, transport andrecreational machines.

Bearing grease repacking is often performed manually. A blob of greaseis pushed and rubbed by hand into the bearing cage and against therollers. While this method does provide lubrication of the bearing, itadds the dirt from the operator's skin to the grease and it exposes theperson's hand to the deleterious effects of grease. It also uses a largeamount of hand towel for cleaning up and is time consuming. All of thesefactors add to the cost of performing bearing grease repacking, and runagainst the trend towards improved occupational health and safetypractices.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide abearing lubrication tool that avoids these problems.

According to the invention, there is provided as bearing lubricationtool comprising:—

supply means for delivering a controlled amount of grease,

support means for locating a bearing in a position where a bearing cageand rollers of the bearing may be lubricated with the grease deliveredby the supply means,

securing means for detachably coupling the supply means and the supportmeans,

the supply means having a grease delivery outlet communicating with agrease delivery inlet of the support means,

a grease flow passageway for transferring grease received through theinlet to the bearing cage and rollers of the bearing,

a plate adapted to prevent grease entering the bore of the bearing,wherein the support means includes a clamp adapted to apply downwardpressure on the bearing sufficient to prevent upward movement of thebearing when grease is transferred thereto,

the clamp being supported at a variable position relating to a shaft ofthe support means.

Preferably, the shaft is mounted to a base portion of the support means.

In a first preferred form, the base portion to which the shaft ismounted is to one side of the clamp, and the clamp is supportedindirectly to the shaft by an arm assembly.

In a second preferred form, the base portion to which the shaft ismounted is beneath the clamp, and the clamp is supported directly on theshaft.

In this second preferred form, the clamp is threadably engaged to theshaft, and a nut is threadably engaged to the shaft above the clamp andis adapted to apply downward pressure on the clamp.

In order that the invention may be readily understood and put intopractical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanyingdrawings, in which:—

FIG. 1 is a partly sectioned side view of a bearing lubrication toolaccording to a first preferred embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 1 a is an isolated end view of the piston of the supply means ofthe tool of FIG. 1,

FIG. 2 is a top view of the tool of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a right side view of the tool of FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is an isolated top view of the clamp of the support means of thetool of FIG. 1,

FIG. 5 is a partly sectioned side view of a bearing lubrication toolaccording to a second preferred embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 6 is a top view of the tool of FIG. 5,

FIG. 7 is a right side view of the tool of FIG. 5,

FIG. 8 is a partly sectioned side view of a bearing lubrication toolaccording to a third preferred embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 9 is a partly sectional side view of an assembly comprising ashaft, clamp and nut which may be used in a bearing lubrication toolaccording to a fourth preferred embodiment of the invention, the nutshown not applying downward pressure on the clamp,

FIG. 10 is a view similar to that of FIG. 9, but with the nut shownapplying downward pressure on the clamp, and

FIG. 11 is a bottom view of the nut of the assembly shown in FIG. 9.

FIGS. 12 to 16 show side sectional views of a bench top bearing greasepacker tool according to a further preferred embodiment of theinvention,

FIGS. 17 and 18 show variations in the control of air flow from theregulator for delivering grease under pressure from the grease cartridgeto the applicator,

FIGS. 19 a to d and FIGS. 20 a to f show collected views of the firstembodiment of the invention, and

FIGS. 21 and 22 show side sectional views of a bearing flush toolaccording to another aspect of the invention.

The bearing lubrication tool 10 shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 has a side mountedshaft 11, and the bearing lubrication tools 12,14 shown in FIGS. 5 to 8have a centre mounted shaft 15.

The tool 10 includes two sub-assemblies, namely, a supply means in theform of a detachable grease cartridge air cylinder assembly 16, and asupport means in the form of a bearing packer head 18 for locating abearing 40 to be lubricated by grease delivered by the detachable greasecartridge air cylinder assembly 16.

A base 20 of the bearing packer head 18 is designed for use in either awork shop or a field environment, and can be held in the jaws of a viceor attached to a work bench by its bench top attachment points 22. Anair cylinder retainer nut 24 is attached to the base 20 and can beremoved so that the bearing packer head 18 can be used without thedetachable grease cartridge air cylinder assembly 16. This option (seeFIG. 8) is useful for workshops that use large pneumatic/electricpowered, remote grease storage drums. The bearing packer head 18 hasprovision made to attach a coupling 25 and connect to a remote supply byuse of its coupling thread 26.

The tool 10 allows the operator to repack bearings with grease quicklywithout needing to have grease on his or her hands. The air cylinderassembly 16 uses a commercially available pre-loaded grease cartridge28, which, when installed, may be emptied of grease when compressed aircontrolled by the operator is used to displace the piston 30, therebymoving the grease through the grease passage 32 to a region 33 between acone 34 and a plate 36. As more and more grease enters the region 33,grease first lifts the plate 36 which seals the bore defined by theinner race 39 of the bearing 40, then moves to the only exit via thebearing cage and rollers 44, thereby greasing the bearing 40 to thedesired level of lubrication. The flow rate is regulated by use of anair switch and regulator device 46 to be described later. As the plate36 lifts and contacts the inner race 39, the plate shaft 48, is used tovisually sight and move the plate 36 to approximate centre so as toprevent entry of grease to the bearing bore. This is easy to accomplishas the bearing clamp 50 has three fingers 52 clamping the bearing 40against the cone 34, allowing adequate access to the plate shaft 48.

The piston 30 used in the air cylinder assembly 16 is purpose made withthe following features. As a commercially available pre-loaded greasecartridge is never totally full of grease, to insert a piston into thebore of the cartridge would allow trapped air to enter the greasepassage 32 with the grease, the trapped air eventually finding its wayinto the cone region 33, which could cause spattering of grease. Toprevent this, the piston 30 has a valve arrangement, easily operated byturning the eye bolt 53 with its attached valve plate 54 and retainer55. This action vents the cartridge 26 to allow all the air to escapethrough vent holes 56 of the piston 30 as the piston 30 is inserted.When grease appears at the vent holes 56, the eye bolt 53 is rotated aquarter turn to close the vent holes 56.

The eye bolt 53 also functions as an attachment point for a cord, oneend of the cord being thereby attached to the piston 30 with the otherend of the cord being attached to an anchor point 57 located inside theblind end of the air cylinder assembly 16. This provides a means forremoving the piston 30 once the grease is exhausted.

The air cylinder assembly 16 includes a control device 46 comprising aself exhausting air switch needed to start and stop grease supply and aregulator for regulating the air pressure on the piston 30 so as toprovide adequate control of grease supply. For the air pressure to beeffective in the air cylinder assembly 16, O-ring seals 60 are installedto seal the air cylinder assembly and to seal the grease cartridge 28 tothe retainer nut 24. This ensures the air pressure is effective only onthe piston 30, which also has an O-ring seal 60. The diameter and lengthof the air cylinder assembly 16 are designed to suit the size of greasecartridge standard package sizes of different countries.

The bearing packer head 18 provides a simple means of retaining thebearing 40 during greasing operations. Once a bearing 40 is installedwith a suitably sized plate 36, the bearing clamp arm 62 is turnedaround the side mounted shaft 11 until centred over the bore of thebearing 40, the bearing 40 and clamp 50 both finding centre due to thesymmetrical shape of the cone 34 and taper of the bearing clamp 50.After greasing, both retainer knobs 66,68 are easily loosened and thearm 62 and clamp 50 are lifted and turned to one side to gain clearaccess for lifting the bearing 40 clear of the cone 34. The bearing boreis free of grease and so the now lubricated bearing 40 can easily belifted up by gripping inside the bore.

It will be readily appreciated that the cone 34 and plate 36 can beproduced in various sizes as options to the purchaser. The base 20 ofthe bearing packer head 18 can also be produced in various sizes toaccommodate different applications.

The tool 12 shown in FIGS. 5 to 7 is different to the tool 10 shown inFIGS. 1 to 4 only in the way the bearing 40 is retained. In order to usea centre thrust bearing clamp 70, a long, centre mounted shaft 15 withthreaded sections and smooth sections is needed to provide clamping andalso to allow the plate O-ring 72 to seal and slide. The bearing clamp70 is such that a knurled section 71 above the three fingers 72 providesthe operator with a handle for fitting and removing the clamp 70 toaccess the bearing 40 and plate 74. A nut 76 is used to provide theclamping force required. The screw-on nature of the nut 76, whilestandard, may prove time consuming, especially if the bearing is smalland locates into the bottom of the cone.

The use of the nut 80 in the assembly shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 willovercome this problem, and make clamping fast and simple. The thread 81of the centre mounted shaft 82 does not extend all the way to the top,allowing the nut 80 to quickly slide downwardly over the unthreaded part84 of the shaft 82 and to centre over the clamp 70 and thread 81 of theshaft 82. The four quarter nut sections 86,87,88,89 (see also FIG. 11)have small magnets 90,92 inserted. These align with a corresponding setof like poled repelling magnets 94,96 set into the housing 98 of the nut80. As the nut 80 is lowered to contact the clamp 70, the quarter nutsections 86,87,88,89 are deflected inwards against the magneticrepelling force, allowing the nut threads 100,102 to engage the shaftthread 81. To simply retain the bearing 40, the nut 80 is slid over theshaft 82 and the knurled section 71 of the clamp 70 is presseddownwardly and turned half a turn. After greasing, the nut 80 is reverseturned and lifted off the shaft 82, followed by the clamp 70 and bearing40. The plate 74 can stay on the shaft 82 for the next bearing of thesame size or can be removed therefrom and replaced with a plate of adifferent size to suit a different size bearing. In practice, the speedof lubrication may be increased by greasing the smallest size bearingsfirst and the largest ones last.

It will be apparent to persons skilled in the art that variousmodifications may be made in details of design and construction of thevarious bearing lubrication tools described above without departing fromthe scope and ambit of the invention. It will also be apparent that thenut 80 can have a wide range of uses, not only as part of an assembly(such as is shown in FIGS. 9 and 10) which may be used in a bearinglubrication tool of the present invention.

The bench top bearing packer tool shown in FIGS. 12 to 16 includessupply means for delivering a controlled amount of grease, support meansfor locating a bearing in a position where a bearing cage and rollers ofthe bearing may be lubricated with the grease delivered by the supplymeans, the supply means having a grease delivery outlet communicatingwith a grease delivery inlet of the support means by a grease flowpassageway, and means for controlling the passage of grease through theinlet to the bearing cage and rollers of the bearing.

The grease cartridge or tube is located remotely of the applicator so asto keep the bench top clean of unwanted equipment. As the grease cup orapplicator will be exposed to dust settling upon it, a flip over dustcover with handle is provided that is, in this embodiment, moulded froma clear plastic. The clear plastic allows the user a better view of thegreasing process. The lid of the cover is clicked over centre and thehandle can also act as a lock to prevent inadvertent activation of thegrease supply.

The embodiments shown in FIGS. 17 and 18 are of an air flow restrictedembodiment and an air flow regulated embodiment.

The bearing flush tool shown in FIGS. 21 and 22 may be used to cleangrease from bearings in the manner as shown and described.

1. A bearing lubrication tool comprising supply means for delivering acontrolled amount of grease, support means for locating a bearing in aposition where a bearing cage and rollers of the bearing may belubricated with the grease delivered by the supply means, the supplymeans having a grease delivery outlet communicating with a greasedelivery inlet of the support means by a grease flow passageway, andmeans for controlling the passage of grease through the inlet to thebearing cage and rollers of the bearing.
 2. The bearing lubrication toolof claim 1 wherein the controlling means includes a valve assemblycomprising a cup and a retainer, wherein relative movement between thecup and the retainer causes the valve assembly to assume an opencondition for allowing grease to pass through the inlet to the bearingcage and rollers of the bearing.
 3. The bearing lubrication tool ofclaim 2 wherein the cup supports the bearing and moves downwardlyrelative to the retainer by downward pressure exerted on the bearing. 4.The bearing lubrication tool of claim 3 wherein the downward pressureexerted on the bearing is applied through a downwardly pointing conethat is supported on the bearing and which is pressed downwardly bymanual application of force on a handle device.
 5. The bearinglubrication tool of claim 4 wherein the cone includes means forcentering the position of the handle device relative to the cone.
 6. Thebearing lubrication tool of claim 5 wherein the centering means of thecone comprises an upwardly extending member which engages a downwardlyextending member of the handle device.
 7. The bearing lubrication toolof claim 6 wherein the upwardly extending member includes a femaleportion that engages a male portion of the downwardly extending member.8. The bearing lubrication tool of claim 2 wherein the support means ismounted on top of a work bench.
 9. The bearing lubrication tool of claim8 wherein the supply means includes a detachable grease cartridge andair cylinder assembly located remotely of the support means, the greasecartridge being installed in the air cylinder and adapted to be emptiedof grease when a supply of compressed air displaces a piston in thecylinder that moves the grease to the grease delivery inlet of thesupport means.
 10. The bearing lubrication tool of claim 8 wherein thesupply means includes a powered grease storage drum located remotely ofthe support means, the powered grease storage drum adapted to be emptiedof grease when a supply of compressed air moves the grease to the greasedelivery inlet of the support means.
 11. The bearing lubrication tool ofclaim 9 wherein the supply of compressed air is controlled by an airpressure regulator to allow the grease to flow at a regulated rate andbe delivered in a controlled amount to the grease delivery inlet of thesupport means.
 12. The bearing lubrication tool of claim 11 wherein theair pressure regulator maintains a constant air pressure and grease iscaused to flow when the valve assembly assumes an open position.
 13. Thebearing lubrication tool of claim 2 wherein the grease delivery inlet isa detachable coupling to the support means or a grease supply port ofthe support means.
 14. The bearing lubrication tool of claim 2 whereinthe cup is supported by spring means and moves downwardly relative tothe retainer against upward pressure exerted by the spring means. 15.The bearing lubrication tool of claim 14 wherein the spring meanscomprise coil springs that press upwardly against an annular seat of thecup, the annular seat having a central opening which, in the absence ofdownward pressure exerted on the bearing when supported by the cup, issealed by the retainer so as to prevent passage of grease through theopening.
 16. The bearing lubrication tool of claim 15 wherein theretainer is secured in a fixed position through the central opening, andincludes a cradle adapted to engage a leading portion of the cone whenthe bearing is not located in a position where it may be lubricated. 17.The bearing lubrication tool of claim 4 wherein the handle deviceincludes a cover portion for covering the valve assembly when thebearing is not located in a position where it may be lubricated.
 18. Thebearing lubrication tool of claim 17 wherein the cover portion is madeof a clear plastic to allow viewing of the passage of grease to thebearing.
 19. A bearing cleaning assembly comprising a tube having afirst end and a second end, the first end including an entry port forreceiving cleaning fluid therethrough, a piston adapted to movereciprocatingly inside the tube, the piston connected to a rod thatemerges from the second end of the tube and terminates in a handle, anair vent formed at the second end, a first conical member connected tothe first end for directing cleaning fluid into the entry port, and asecond conical member adapted to be submerged in cleaning fluid and tosupport a bearing in need of cleaning, wherein, in use, the bearing issandwiched between the first and second conical members in the cleaningfluid, and the piston is withdrawn to draw cleaning fluid into the tubethrough the entry port, during which cleaning fluid is also drawnthrough and around the bearing so as to clean the bearing.
 20. A bearinglubrication tool comprising: supply means for delivering a controlledamount of grease, support means for locating a bearing in a positionwhere a bearing cage and rollers of the bearing may be lubricated withthe grease delivered by the supply means, securing means for detachablycoupling the supply means and the support means, the supply means havinga grease delivery outlet communicating with a grease delivery inlet ofthe support means, a grease flow passageway for transferring greasereceived through the inlet to the bearing cage and rollers of thebearing, a plate adapted to prevent grease entering the bore of thebearing, wherein the support means includes a clamp adapted to applydownward pressure on the bearing sufficient to prevent upward movementof the bearing when grease is transferred thereto, the clamp beingsupported at a variable position relating to a shaft of the supportmeans.
 21. The bearing lubrication tool of claim 20 wherein the shaft ismounted to a base portion of the support means.
 22. The bearinglubrication tool of claim 21 wherein the base portion to which the shaftis mounted is to one side of the clamp, and the clamp is supportedindirectly to the shaft by an arm assembly.
 23. The bearing lubricationtool of claim 21 wherein the base portion to which the shaft is mountedis beneath the clamp, and the clamp is supported directly on the shaft.24. The bearing lubrication tool of claim 23 wherein the clamp isthreadably engaged to the shaft, and a nut is threadably engaged to theshaft above the clamp and is adapted to apply downward pressure on theclamp.
 25. The bearing lubrication tool of claim 10 wherein the supplyof compressed air is controlled by an air pressure regulator to allowthe grease to flow at a regulated rate and be delivered in a controlledamount to the grease delivery inlet of the support means.
 26. Thebearing lubrication tool of claim 25 wherein the air pressure regulatormaintains a constant air pressure and grease is caused to flow when thevalve assembly assumes an open position.